Time and Bandages
by silverwolf-fox
Summary: ONESHOT! Miranda and Kanda think about their new training sessions. MirandaxKanda


**This is just a one-shot for Kanda and Miranda I thought up on vacation.**

**This might be somewhat OOC but then again it might not be.**

**Review please.**

She would bear with whatever he did.

The training she went through with him was hard and painful but no matter what it was her decision.

That's why she hates herself.

Miranda was walking down the many halls of the Black Order, avoiding as many people as possible, not that there was a reason. Thanks to her jacket and long pants all the bruises forming up and down the fair skin of her arms and legs so it wasn't as if anybody could see them. Especially not Allen of Lenalee. She couldn't let them see or else they might insist she stop.

She didn't want to stop.

Maybe she should.

She was lying to everyone. They all wanted to know why she would willingly choose to ask Kanda to train her and she told them that it was because she wanted to get stronger. That she wanted to be able to protect those who with Innocence.

It wasn't true.

Miranda felt so bad because everything she's been telling them has been a lie. While true that she did want to help people but that isn't why she bears with the training sessions with the skilled swordsman.

She does it because it's the only way she can be near him.

Miranda came across her room so she opened the door and walked inside. She unzipped her jacket and tossed it onto her bed, leaving on her sleeveless, white shirt. Since she was so clumsy she didn't have a mirror of any kind in her room, because she didn't want to risk breaking it, so her eyes rakes across her skin taking in all the bruises starting to form. They would definitely hurt by tomorrow. She was lucky they were only bruises.

When he had first agreed to train her he demanded she learn how to dodge, and from their block and maybe learn some hand-to-hand fighting. Sadly Miranda was never the most agile girl so even something as simple as dodging was difficult for her. What made it even worse was that he had used his Innocence for her lessons. His sharp katana. She still had some scars from where she had continuously gotten cut. Thankfully, because she was a clutz, and he noticed how bad she was doing, he started to use a wooden practice sword instead.

She was glad that she'd never gotten hit on the face. Despite the scars and bruises that trailed her arms and legs, and even her stomach, there was nothing that marred her face.

Kanda's blade swished through the air as he ran through several drills for his katana. He had just finished his training session with Miranda Lotto and it had hardly counted as a warm-up so he was making up for lost time. A lot of people wondered why he bothered but he never answered.

His reasons were his own.

He knew how much she wanted to help others. To protect the Black Order. To protect the Innocence. Without help she would fail miserably and Kanda was one of the best fighters in the Black Order so who else would be better to ask? Of course he knew about how injured she got during their sessions. He knew how many bruises and cuts must lace her arms and legs. It didn't matter to him.

Something else did.

He didn't care where he injured her, just as long as he never damaged her face.

Miranda always had plenty of bandages in her room. She needed them. She sat down on her bed and pulled up the leg of her pants where bandages were wrapped around her mid-calf. It had been a deep cut and it still hadn't healed so she'd been cleaning the wound daily. It didn't take long and afterwards she attempted to wrap her wrist. Earlier she had tried to block the wooden sword and she had ended up hurting herself. It would be better in a few days but if she wrapped it than it might do better.

A wave of depression fell over her.

She was so pathetic. She couldn't even keep a wooden training sword from hitting her. How was she supposed to help anybody when she wouldn't even help herself? But she wasn't even training to help others. It was all for selfish reasons. However much she hurt each day she would always arrive early and hopefully leave late.

Even her Innocence was used for selfish reasons.

Every day Miranda would use her beloved clock to slow down time in the training area so that she got to be around Kanda for a little while longer. She was such an awful person.

Tears slipped from her eyes. Why couldn't she be so selfless, like Allen or Lenalee? She lifted a hand to brush away her tears and the badly wrapped bandages on her wrist slipped off and she desperately tried to grab them before they fell to the ground. She failed. Just like she always did. Miranda picked them up and stood to go get some help, probably from Lenalee, but as she opened the door to leave she walked right into someone.

Her dark eyes, still red from her tears, looked up and widened at who was there.

Kanda was still practicing when his strikes started to slow. Had he been too rough on her? It was true that if he went easy she would never learn but…His blade stilled. He stood frozen in thought. After a moment he sighed and sheathed his katana. Maybe just this once.

He took off, walking towards her room. He was just about to knock when it opened and she walked into him. Her face paled when she saw him and he couldn't help a small twinge of guilt, but also annoyance. He wasn't that cruel during their sessions. Repressing a sigh he looked at her and noticed that she was holding some bandages and that the wrist she pathetically tried to use to block a wooden sword was turning red and was also starting to swell.

Taking the bandages from her, Kanda started to wrap her wrist tightly to help immobilize it as much as possible.

He never said a word.

Why did she take so much from him? Why did she bear each day going to his training sessions? Why did she slow down time each day? Kanda wasn't an idiot and the time lapse when they quit was obvious to him but he didn't call her on it. He probably never would. But why? Every day he beat her to a pulp. She would probably never rid herself of the scars but that still didn't matter to him.

None of it did.

All he wanted was to be able to look at her perfect face every day.

"Thank you."

**Well that's it. Who said 'Thank you' and why?**

**Use your own imagination. This is a one-shot and it's staying a one-shot.**

**Review please.**


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